Matt was the first to feet it.
Like when a door bursts open when there's a downpour, a chill just blew into the shack, rising up his leg and licking his spine.
He involuntary shivered.
"Matt, move your ass." Glen patted him on the shoulder but Matt scowled.
"Don't rush me, I'm done already. We'll leave Miss V here, I guess. Let's go alr...oh my god!" Matt jumped back as he looked behind Glen, drawing everyone's attention.
Lesley's body, which had been laying flat on the metal table, exposed and gruesome was now... sitting up. Slowly, Lesley got up, as if from a nap, his opened torso seemingly not to matter.
"Fuck! Susan was right, Mama V did bring a demon here!" One of women cried as she dropped her bag with the kidneys.
Lesley didn't hear them, his eyes were blood red and glazed over with the grimace of death. He sat there, staring vacantly ahead, his mouth slightly agape.
"What should we do?" Glen asked as he backed to the wall.
"I don't know...maybe we could - he's moving!" Matt cowered in the corner next to Veranda's sleeping body.
Lesley had gotten off the table, standing on his own two feet. His cut flesh dangled horrifically and blood flowed from his open cavities. He gazed at each of them, as he groaned softly.
"He's a zombie." The woman from earlier said," He's just a zombie. That's it. Just bash him down Matt."
"Why me? I...I'm watching Miss V. Glen, you bash it down." Matt lowered himself to Veranda and held her close, as if protecting her. But anyone could tell he was unwilling and scared, earning a scowl from Glen.
"Fuck you shithead." Glen swore as he inched to the left, where a metal pipe was and picked it up." Okay, time to die again kid. Ahhhh!"
Glen charge swinging down the pipe onto Lesley's head, connecting with a brutal sound.
CRUNCH!
Lesley's neck snapped along with the back of his skull, but he didn't fall down. With a growl, Lesley dropped down, standing with one arm as he delivered a side kick to Glen's side, shooting the human to the wall. Glen slammed into the wall, knocking it loose and piercing his chest with a metal rod.
"Ahhhh! Hel-" The woman screaming didn't get to finish her cries as Lesley struck her on the neck, snapping her spine and oesophagus, ending her life in one blow.
The other woman tried to run but Lesley grabbed the dead woman and using inhumane strength he tossed the body, knocking the fleeing woman to the floor. The third man, Wilbert jumped towards Lesley with a brick but Lesley didn't dodge, taking the brick to the face. His nose and skull cracked in, his bones piercing his brain, but he felt no pain. He was like a killing machine, with no sense of feeling but to damage and kill.
"Aghhh!" Wilbert coughed blood, Lesley's hand had plunged into his chest squeezing his heart, then crushing it.
"Matt, help me!" The woman on the floor begged for help, her hip was dislocated after Lesley threw her friend at her like a doll. The woman was in her fifties and always had back pain, being bashed by a tossed body had thrown her hip out.
Matt cowered next to Veranda, hyperventilating, unable to move, absolute fear gripped him. The woman started to weep, her sobs deep and loud.
"No...no...nooo...oh, oh...no! No! Please! Ahhhh!" Lesley pulled her by the legs, tossing her over his shoulder and bashing her onto the table. The table's third leg dislodged itself and the woman was impaled through the chest.
But she didn't die, since it miraculously missed her heart.
"Ahhhh! Mother fucker! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" The woman screamed hysterically, all her senses were ignited by the pain and agony. Lesley bashed her on the back of her head, smashing her skull in and her brains.
The screams stopped.
"Father... who art... in heaven," Matt weeped as Lesley turned to him with his bloody bashed up face and dead eye. One of Lesley's eyes had popped after being hit by the brick. "Forgive us...our trespasses...as we...forgive...uhhh... forgive...amen."
Matt couldn't remember the rest but hoped God, if he existed, would forgive him for everything. Matt knew he was not a good man but he didn't want to die. The looming and slowly walking form of Lesley seemed to be his Reaper, here to take his life. After years of hunting down people, now it was their turn to be hunted, killed and earen.
Matt held Veranda tightly, shutting his eyes , unwilling to see his fate. But, because he used a bit to much strength, the girl in his arms whimpered in her sleep, and the teenager froze.
Lesley stood still, his one good eye gazing at Veranda in Matt's arms. His green eye was murky, with two shades of green flowing through it, like mould and moss. But after hearing Veranda whimper, a bit of clarity appeared in their depths and Lesley became more aware of himself and his surroundings. His hand reached down and touched the large cavity in his chest and then he looked at the dead bodies around the room.
"Les, are you awake?" Liv's voice echoed in Lesley's mind and the teenager groaned. Lesley touched his throat with a frown, why couldn't he talk?
"Truly, a fine Corpse. I am surprised he's so efficient, his movements and skill are better." Lych's voice echoed after and Lesley frowned.
Corpse? Wasn't that a-
"Les, you have to get your organs back now. After you do, we can heal you up, and you'll be alive again." Liv said softly.
Lesley frowned, or atleast he tried to, but his face was messed up from the blunt traumas. Slowly Lesley looked around and saw the bags scattered around with his organs, that's when he remembered that he was killed by these people. With a groan, he moved to the bag near his foot belonging to the impaled woman, containing his lungs. He put them in his chest and a green mist reattached them to his body and they started taking in air.
Lesley wheezed, taking a breath through his ruined nose, which sounded inhuman.
Matt watched the teenager walk around taking the bags and putting the organs back in his body. Magically, they all got reattached by a mystical green mist that seemed to come out from his pores. Finally Lesley grabbed the bag with his heart, the final organ missing.
"M...monster."
"Huh?" Lesley groaned as he turned to the wall, where Glen was impaled by a metal rod through his chest, but was still alive. He was staring at the dead woman impaled on the table leg, his eyes watering with tears. His eyes held grief, pain and anger, and when Lesley saw those hate filled eyes look at him, he was struck with a feeling.
The feeling was from a memory, distant and recent, drowning out everything else.
In that moment, Lesley saw himself, standing on a train seat, crying tears of grief and hatred as his grandmother's body was ravaged by the undead. He was not a teenager, but a little tween boy, facing a horror filled sight, that was edged into his brain, his soul, his core. Lesley shuddered as he looked at Glen, the impaled woman, the dead bodies and his blood stained hands.
He was the one who did this. The butchering didn't matter, because he'd been able to fight without killing. He could have, he should have...but instead he'd hunted and battered them around. Ripped them apart and bashed them like toys...he behaved like a zombie. Lesley looked at the bag in his hands, with his heart inside. At that moment, it clicked inside his head; he was a zombie!
"Grahh!" Lesley groaned loudly as he dropped to his knees, gripped his head tightly and gritted his teeth till they cracked. His fingers dug into his skull as he tried to pry the feelings overwhelming him, even Liv and Lych couldn't reach him. Lesley was having a mental breakdown.
"What's happening?" Matt muttered softly as he looked at Glen.
"You monster! Monster!" Glen spat at Lesley, unable to move from the wall but able to hurl insults. Glen cursed Lesley again and again, calling him foul words that made Matt hiss and grimace.
Lesley seemed to grow more unstable, his mind broken as he realised he became what he had hated for years. It was hard to describe the feelings he felt, like describing a rainbow to the blind. Grief, anger, shame, revulsion, confusion, sadness and pain all mashed together inside him that his psych was on the verge of collapse. Lesley was about to go deranged and insane, his mind ready to plunge into madness and soul eating despair.
Who is to blame?
Lesley quivered, the question burning in his mind like a hot iron. Who's to blame? Lesley thought desperately, Me, Mama V, These savages, The guards, the zombies, the citadel, everyone...it's all of them.
No, a voice said and someone appeared infront of Lesley. It was a fourteen year old boy with red hair, green eyes and freckles. He had tear stains on his cheek and a angry scowl. It was Lesley... himself.
Why are you cowering? The Lesley said angrily, Are going to stay there? Crying? Hoping everything will be alright? What about everything that's happened? Being toyed around going whichever way is set for you? Being used by everyone? Did it mean nothing!?
"No" Lesley whispered.
You know who is to blame for the pain, the Lesley leaned down gazing into Lesley's eye. You know, but you're scared. Remember what we promised mom? No matter what, no matter who, and no matter when-
"I won't stop until i can fight my fears, and kill them. All of them." Lesley clenched his fists.
Exactly, the Lesley gave a small sad smile, but because of her... we're nothing but a puppet. We can't do anything. We can't protect Liam. We couldn't even protect Veranda. We are nothing. I hate it. I hate feeling this way. I hate her for making me feel this way. I don't want to be afraid anymore. I want to make her scared. This time, we won't cry. We'll save them, kill them and no longer be weak. Promise?
"I promise ...to not be afraid anymore. To become strong enough, to make them all scared." Lesley's mind grew colder, his eye less mad with uncertainty and instead they were mad with rage. Lesley gritted his teeth, as his emotional turmoil was overwhelmed by rage, absolute and white hot hatred bloomed inside him.
And a desire, an unquenchable will, to become strong enough to fight back against the one who caused all of his pain...Death.